Help for English Students

Bible Verses for the Comparative Study

Biblical allusion is a key technique in both texts for the Comparative Module: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott. In an increasingly secular and multicultural country, it can no longer be assumed that students know the bible verses being alluded to in various texts. Here are some suggested verses and associated notes to help you out.

Matthew 6:22-23

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.

Of course eyes are a key motif in both texts. It is the creature’s eye opening that disgusts Victor. And it is Roy’s eye surveying the city (Los Angeles = City of Angels) at the beginning of the film. The above verse is one of the sources of the saying “the eye is the window to the soul”.

Unto the last generation

This phrase is used so often in the Bible I won’t bother to list all the references. Victor uses it to describe who will benefit from his creation: “all mankind to the last generation” (p4).

Deliver us from evil (part of the the Lord’s Prayer)

The creature says to Victor, “Yet it is within your power to recompense me, and deliver them from an evil.” This reinforces the notion that Victor is playing god.

Isaiah 14:12-15

“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star,son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.

First of all, isn’t that a beautiful piece of poetry? This passage is probably actually about Babylon but, since the Mediaeval period has been taken to describe Lucifer’s fall from heaven. This works beautifully with our texts in a number of ways. The Creature says to Victor, “I ought to have been thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel” (p118). The Prelude to Frankenstein quotes from Paradise Lost (check out Book 2 of Milton’s epic for a deeper understanding), which was clearly inspired by this chapter in the bible. Finally, Roy’s confrontation with Tyrell and subsequent death can be seen as an allegory of Lucifer’s challenging of god’s authority.

There is, of course, far more to it than that. In the film Roy can be linked with the prodigal son, Adam and–at his death–the crucified Christ. Key place names include (the already mentioned) Los Angeles and, in Frankenstein, ArchAngel and St Petersburg. Victor talks about Paradise and Providence. He describes his mother, Caroline, as a “guardian angel”. The Tyrell Corp building is a pagan pyramid, while the Swiss Alps are pictured as “domed” cathedrals.

Then there is the theological question raised by both texts: do the created beings (Frankenstein’s “daemon” and the replicant Roy Batty) have souls?